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Thanks for taking time to visit the 2008 Happisburgh Bird Diary, we hope you enjoyed reading it. To find out what Ossie and I see this year please visit the Happisburgh Parish Bird List 2009 ...

10th - 16th August

A bright, breezy week ensued, warm on the Sunday, cooler on the Monday but warming by the weekend. There was a good mix of sunshine and cloud and light rain overnight from the 11th was perhaps the build up to a torrential shower mid-morning on the 12th.

The biggest surprise of the week came on Monday morning when, as I walked Ossie to the end of the lane, there was a Kingfisher sitting on a wooden rail by the watery ditch at the paddocks. It was only there briefly for as soon as I saw it, it saw me and was off. Without any decent ponds or water courses in the parish I had rated my chances of recording one here as very slim. They do however occur as a coastal migrant but are recorded rather infrequently. Walking back home one of the Turtle Doves was perched on the telegraph wires that cross the fields here. A Sparrowhawk (or 2) was seen over the garden on Sunday and Friday, the former a juvenile bird that perched in my next door neighbour's garden for a while. I was able to get some photographs by shooting through a narrow gap in the fence. Perhaps due to the inexperience of youth, it didn't see me and fly; I'm sure such keen eyesight must have detected me through the gap. The Hobby was also over again this week causing panic amongst the House Martins once more.

Not always welcomed in gardens Sparrowhawks are nontheless fascinating and beautifully marked birds.

Friday saw a few Chiffchaffs appear and although I didn't get close up, their behaviour led me to believe that it was a family party. Ossie had a long walk on Saturday, across the fields to the cliffs near our lovely lighthouse and back. A little migration was evident with a Curlew and 2 Golden Plover flying north and a southward bound juvenile Wheatear was feeding along a grassy bank. At sea a Red-throated Diver was close inshore, resplendent in full summer plumage, and small numbers of Common and Sandwich Terns were feeding and passing by...

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Welcome to Happisburgh Parish Birding...Situated on the coast in NE Norfolk, Happisburgh is an excellent place in which to see many of the different bird species that occur in Norfolk each year. Although lacking any sizeable areas of open fresh water, there is a range of habitat in which common, scarce and sometimes rarer birds can be found. I live towards the southern most part of the parish and have been watching birds in Norfolk for over 30 years.

Having settled here, and due to family commitments, most of my birding is now within the parish, from Walcott Gap in the west, inland to Walcott Green, Grub Street, Happisburgh Common and the East Ruston and Brumstead borders, and across to Whimpwell Green, Cart Gap and the boundary with Lessingham. What I hope to do here is to diarise my bird sightings within Happisburgh and adjacent parishes throughout the year. I’m hoping that other people with an interest in birds/wildlife, either local residents or visitors to the area, will find this an interesting and beneficial project. My contact details can be found under MY COMPLETE PROFILE for anyone wishing to contact me regarding birds in Happisburgh or NE Norfolk.